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American civil rights movement
American civil rights movement
American civil rights movement
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In this essay I will be informing you on information about people from Mississippi who has made a huge impact in life. We have people like Ruby Bridges who integrated an all-white school. Ida B Wells an early leader in the civil rights movement who was also a writer as well. Last but not least Ms. Oprah Gail Winfrey, the most influential woman in the world
In 1954 September 8th Ruby Bridges was born in Tylertown, Mississippi to the parents of Lucille and Abon Bridges. At the age of 4 Ruby Bridges and her family relocated to New Orleans, Louisiana. In 1960 Ruby parents volunteer her to participate in the NAACP New Orleans Color System program. The Program was to have blacks integrated into an all-white elementary school which is called William Frantz Elementary school. Ruby father Abon was very hesitant of his daughter attending the school along with 5 other black students. They all had pass the test to attend William Frantz Elementary school but ruby end up being the only one to attend. Two others of the 6 black students went back to their old school and the other three chose to transfer to another school, leaving ruby to attend by herself. Ruby mother Lucille felt very strongly about her choice to send her daughter off to William Frantz Elementary. She felt it was a great opportunity for better education for her daughter and that it was the first step for all black African American’s children, November 14, 1960 Ruby Bridges first day of school. She was surrounded by officers and her mother on her way to school. Ruby had to march through a crowd of angry white folks who held signs and yell names at her. Ruby never once cried or show signs of weakness. She held her head high and marched right on in the building. The white people...
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...Chicago show! She than launched her own Production Company and became internationally syndicated. Oprah than had her own show called The Oprah Winfey Show that millions of people tune in every week to watch. She became so Mainstream Oprah is one of the most top paid Black African American woman on the face of the earth right now. Even without her show she has her own Television Channel now which is called OWN. The Channel airs some of Oprah most highlights moments, D.Phil., Iyanal Vanzant, Fixed My Life and many more shows.
These three women are all from some part of Mississippi. They all have went through hardships in life and overcame them. Their struggles have made them the women that they are today and I salute them all.
Works Cited
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruby_Bridges http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ida_B._Wells http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey
Throughout the American South, of many Negro’s childhood, the system of segregation determined the patterns of life. Blacks attended separate schools from whites, were barred from pools and parks where whites swam and played, from cafes and hotels where whites ate and slept. On sidewalks, they were expected to step aside for whites. It took a brave person to challenge this system, when those that did suffered a white storm of rancour. Affronting this hatred, with assistance from the Federal Government, were nine courageous school children, permitted into the 1957/8 school year at Little Rock Central High. The unofficial leader of this band of students was Ernest Green.
During the 1950s, African Americans struggled against racial segregation, trying to break down the race barrier. Fifteen year old Melba Patillo Beals was an ordinary girl, until she’s chosen with eight other students to integrate Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas. They are named the Little Rock and fight through the school year, while students and segregationists are threatening and harassing them. Warriors Don’t Cry—a memoir of Beals’ personal experience—should be taught in schools because it teaches students to treat each other equally and to be brave, while it also shows the struggle of being an African-American in the 1950s. Another lesson taught in the retelling is that everyone can make a change.
In the book Warriors Don't Cry by Melba Pattillo Beals, the author describes what her reactions and feelings are to the racial hatred and discrimination she and eight other African-American teenagers received in Little Rock, Arkansas during the desegregation period in 1957. She tells the story of the nine students from the time she turned sixteen years old and began keeping a diary until her final days at Central High School in Little Rock. The story begins by Melba talking about the anger, hatred, and sadness that is brought up upon her first return to Central High for a reunion with her eight other classmates. As she walks through the halls and rooms of the old school, she recalls the horrible acts of violence that were committed by the white students against her and her friends.
Ruby forgave those who were disrespectful to her and continued to move on with her life. She continued her work as a civil rights activist and is still fighting for equality for all races as we speak. In 1999, Bridges started The Ruby Bridges Foundation with one main goal: “promotes and encourages the values of tolerance, respect, and appreciation of all differences.” This foundation is another way Ruby Bridges is changing the world
She first started writing, when she came back home after the death of her father. She wrote about the Jackson social scene for the Memphis, Tennessee newspaper. She also was a publicity agent for the Works Progress Administration in rural Mississ...
Beals made history When the Governor of the State didn’t let the Blacks into the High School so the President sent the Soldier of the 101st to the state to escort them through the mob of Angry Whites. During this people shouted ugly words,, raised their fist to the Blacks, and Looked horrified of the Blacks while Beals and the Other Little Rock nine were getting escorted through the Town to the School. Beals said ‘’Some of the White people looked horrified, While others raised their fist, others shouted ugly Words,’’ Beals reaction to this is she felt sad and proud she felt proud that the country would do all of this to escort them to the school but Beals was sad that they had to go to such great lengths. Beals said that ‘’She was proud that I lived in a country that would go this far to bring justice to a little tock Girl like me but sad that they had to go to such great lengths.’’ Then the Soldiers of the 101st made a protective cocoon, and escorted them through the mob of Whites that did not want the blacks to be in there society. How this event affected the society is when Beals went to school with other Whites she broke a little more of the Color Barrier. To Conclude Melba Beals changed the mind of some of the Whites, and break the color
“It was like a Nazi rally. Yes, it was just that way Nuremberg must have felt.” (Lambert, 114) The Nazi rally was referred to the public address Governer Ross Barnett gave at half time during the football game between Ole Miss and the University of Kentucky. Nazi’s as well had rallies lead by Hitler. They had a notion that Jews were an inferior race, based on the idea of Eugenics. The Nazi’s and the South were alike in that aspect. The South saw African Americans as an inferior race and the only race that could be superior was the white race. In, The battle of Ole Miss: Civil Rights v. State Rights, the author Frank Lambert presents historian James Silver’s idea that Mississippi was a “closed society,” therefore diminishing any other views besides their own. Before one could consider Mississippi as a “closed society,” one must look at the history of what created Mississippi to become a “closed society,” to have strong beliefs of white supremacy and why they tried to sustain those beliefs at all cost. In this novel, Lambert address the issue that made a significant impact on Mississippi and its people. The issue of James Meridith, an African American who sought for high education from a prestigious school, Ole Miss. White Mississippians beliefs of white supremacy towards African Americans extreme. What caused Mississippi to become this society dates back to the civil war, the fear on African Americans surpassing them, and the politics.
In her memoir Warriors Don’t Cry, Melba Pattillo Beals describes her experiences as she became one of the first nine black students educated in an integrated white school. She and her friends, who became known as the “Little Rock Nine”, elicited both support and criticism from their family members, friends, community members, military troops, in addition to the President of the United States. Melba’s experiences, while heartbreaking and sobering, highlight the strength to overcome that individuals can have over a system intent on keeping them down. Throughout her experience, Melba’s views and attitudes have changed quite a bit. When she first volunteered to be one of the first black students to attend Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, Melba was full of excitement.
Perhaps the most notable triumph of Oprah Winfrey is her job as host of her own television show, "The Oprah Winfrey Show". Because anyone is free to decide what they choose as a career, she had the opportunity to create this show. The viewings and acceptance of the consumers to her show allowed it's prosperity. Keep in mind that Oprah had no control of the success her show would receive, although she had free decision to do what she pleased with it, it was the decision of the consumers
“Study the Masters”, by Lucille Clifton, focuses on the various ways of how African American women have contribute to America. Through the poem the author implores the readers to pay attention to invisible women, “like my aunt Timmie. Stating that it was her iron the smoothed out the sheets her master rested upon day to day. It states the facts of African American women talents and gifts they have been giving. It tells the story of how their gifts have been in many ways, shapes, or forms, tossed under the covers, the stories of them being dared to ever show any of what their hearts truly bestowed. One of the most important things about Lucille Clifton’s work is that she tells the stories of how African American women gifts have been taken
In honor of her courageousness, painter Norman Rockwell painted a picture of a little black girl walking with 4 federal marshals in 1964. It was when Ruby saw this painting that she realized that what she did when she was 6 was important. Ruby was pushed further into the world of Civil Activism when her brother Malcolm Bridges was killed in what looked like a drug-related shooting, she took in his children, who at the time, coincidently, went to William Frantz School. She became a volunteer at the school, which had become an interracial
“There's no problem on the planet that can't be solved without violence. That is the lesson of the Civil Rights Movement” (Young) . Ruby bridges was the first African American girl to attend an all white school. African Americans in the 1960s during the Civil Rights Movement were not allowed to do much such as vote, shop at certain places, etc. During the Civil Rights Movement, there were riots and boycotts and sit ins. The leader of the Civil Rights Movement was Martin Luther King Jr. From the year 1968 to 1970, there were a lot of riots. In 1960, six year old Ruby Bridges changed America by walking up the stairs of a white only school to gain an education. To survive this experience, Ruby had to rise above the prejudice, face her fears, and find strength in her faith.
By 1964 only 2.4 percent of African Americans were attending white schools. Ruby bridges took the initiative to change that for the future. Ruby Bridges was a heroic, young African American activist who was an idol for many minorities by standing up for what she believed in and attending an all-white school.
Oprah was born on a farm in 1954 to a poor family. Winfrey enjoyed reciting African American poetry, and became known as the "little speaker" in her town. When she was 12, Winfrey won $500 for a speech she gave at her father 's church. From then on she wanted to "be paid to talk." When Winfrey was a teenager, her dream was put on hold. Some of the trusted men of her family began to sexually abuse her. She lashed out in anger at the world by lying to her mother, running away from home, and stealing. Unaware of what Winfrey was going through, her mother sent her away to live with her father. If her mother never sent her away, Oprah 's life would have been much different. At age 17, Oprah Winfrey won the Miss Black Tennessee beauty pageant and was offered an on-air job at WVOL, a radio station for the African American community in Nashville. Oprah continued to work at WVOL in her first years of college, but her broadcasting career was already taking off. She left school and signed on with a local television station as a reporter and anchor. In 1976, she moved to Baltimore to join WJZ-TV News as a co-anchor. There, she co-hosted her first talk show, People Are Talking, while continuing to serve as anchor and news reporter. In January 1984, she was invited to Chicago to host a half-hour morning program on WLS-TV. In less than a year, she turned AM Chicago into the hottest show in